Huge news – the word we’ve all been waiting for – raise a glass and fasten your seatbelts as SOBER the movie will be released in APRIL 2025.
Director Matthew Cooper explains:
Sober is due for release in April 2025 – on YouTube and free to view. We’re all very excited for the film and hope it can really find an audience online.
Sober was written by myself (based on a script that was originally written in 1998) and the two lead actors Dean Smith (Last Tango in Halifax / Still Open All Hours) and Tom Gibbons (Funny Cow / The Archers).
Dean, Tom and I are all Leeds born and bred, and fans of Leeds United. The film is set in Leeds (and shot on location in Leeds) and features lot of Leeds United references (its set during the period that Marcello Bielsa was manager of Leeds).
We’re all hugely excited about the release of the film – Sober was made entirely independently and shot on a budget of £7,000 which myself, Dean and Tom raised. So, all the shooting and postproduction budget was entirely supplied by the three guys who wrote it.
Sober is a comedy drama, and at times very funny, and very dramatic. It’s my biggest project as a director so far – the film was shot over a nine day period and has taken two years to finish.
I’m very excited to the see the audience reaction – the film has a lot of heart and is very tender in many ways.
A huge amount of the credit belongs to Dean Smith and Tom Gibbons who are amazing in the film as best mates, and really turned in a huge shift as actors / producers / co-writers and co-financers – the film would never have got anywhere with their unwavering commitment to the project (and belief in myself).
I’m truly humbled by how much faith they had in me as a director and partner.
